‘Time’ Magazine Cover Shows Mother Breast-Feeding 3-Year-Old Son

Are you mom enough? That’s the question that’s being raised in a controversial new Time magazine cover story featuring a mother breastfeeding her son. While the title seems innocent enough, the picture that follows has some people up in arms. Just in time for Mother’s Day, Time is featuring a cover showing a mother breast-feeding her toddler son. The 3-year-old boy, who’s old enough to walk and talk on his own, is also old enough to stand on a chair to nurse his mother’s bare breast for the camera. The cover-worthy snapshot is that of Jamie Lynne Grumet of Los Angeles, whose son was the first of her children she tried the attachment parenting method with.

Time‘s “Are You Mom Enough” article focuses on the attachment parenting method that first became popular in the ’90s after it was highlighted in a book by Dr. Bill Sears. Sears’ book brought to light three main tenets common in this custom; extended breast-feeding, co-sleeping and “baby wearing” where an infant is “worn” by their parents through slings.

Is attachment parenting disturbing? At first glance, yes. The article written by writer Kate Pickert, however, invites readers to examine the often misconstrued subject for themselves. With that in mind, the startling cover image certainly seems like the way to do it. –danielle canada